theres no way he is 6th man willingly. He is due for his last contract as a player. he needs that thing to be filled with a lot of 0's.

Well then his best bet would be playing off the bench. How can you shine playing alongside the best player in the game, and the 19th and 24th best (based on that one dude's ranking)? Off the bench he'll be the leader.

Whenever I see threads or news reports with Odom as 6th man, I just can't fathom that happening.

He will start, no matter how inconsistent you may think he is. Plus he's the fourth option now! It's all G

He won't be playing off the bench because of his inconsistency, but because of his versatility. It isn't going to be a punishment.

They'll hopefully experiment with both scenarios at training camp and preseason, and just go with what works best.

Why is everyone looking at him going to the bench as a punishment, starting or not he will still get 32+ minutes and I personally think he is more of a bench guy than a starter, talent wise he is a starter but not mental wise. He would be a better fit coming off the bench playing more at the PF spot than SF spot. With Bynum and Gasol down low we need shooters not another slasher like Lamar, it will crowd the paint too much on offense.

What many critics fail to see is that champions have always had that "should be" starter coming off the bench. Many like to refer to Manu Ginobili, but it goes deeper than that.Lets get Manu out of the way. Manu has been the 3rd highest paid player on the Spurs while playing around 28-30 mpg during this stretch. Its resulted in multiple rings. There's also Toni Kukoc who was consistenly one of the highest paid players on the Bulls, 2nd and 3rd at times. He was arguably the Bulls 4th best player, yet he came off the bench for huge team success. The Lakers themselves had their own version with Michael Cooper. He was making the most money on the team for a bit, winning a Defensive Player of the Year award, yet he was coming off the bench on the way to NBA glory.

This is Ariza's time to blossom into a great player for us, and hopefully the mid-range jumper he's been practicing over the summer will show during the season. I certainly do not want Vlad starting, not so much Luke either. This is all if Lamar coming off the bench actually becomes a steady thing.

One other thing I heard that might be worth paying attention to is that Phil Jackson is considering starting Trevor Ariza over Lamar Odom. Now, there are a couple of reasons why that move could be made: 1) L-O may have fallen out of favor with Jackson and/or the front office and 2) coming off the bench would pit him against the opponents second unit with the belief that Odom could dominate those stretches of the game. Plus, if he comes off the bench, he won't be playing directly alongside Kobe all the time.

Again, it's just a rumor and this point, but it's definitely something worth watching as we get closer to the season opener: Tuesday, October 28th at home against Portland.

L.A.Times: Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said recently that he is considering making Lamar Odom the team’s sixth man this season. The Lakers convened this afternoon for a media session in El Segundo before the start of training camp Tuesday and Odom voiced his disdain for Jackson’s idea.

“He must have woke up and bumped his head. He probably hit his head on something — boom,” Odom said about Jackson. “To start off like that, you’ve got to be out of your . . . mind.”